Welcome to the Best Supernatural Song-to-scene contest. Before we get started though, the winner of the Best SPN Episode Contest according to SpoilerTV voters was.....What is and What Should Never Be BY 1 VOTE!!! Talk about close. We've never had a finale so tight before or even close. Thanks to everyone who participated. However, the hiatus marches on so we do too. The song-to-scene contest is different than most polls so please read the following basics before voting. If you have questions, please post them in the comments below.
Basics: PLEASE READ.
The song-to-scene contest is not a popularity contest per se. It is about which song best fits which scene in tone and lyrics. Unlike a favorite song or favorite scene contest, you could very well end up voting for a song and/or scene you don't like simply because it matches the best. Ideally we are looking for a scene in which no other song could come even close to being as perfect. We are looking for a song that could not be played in many different scenes in the series. That one combination where the song and scene feel like they were completely in sync. So think on your vast music knowledge and if you can think of several songs that would work in the scene, toss that choice out. If you can think of several places where the song would work just as well or better in the series, toss that choice out too. This contest only works if we let our episode and music prejudices go for 3 weeks.
Also previouslies, outtakes, gag reels, promos, etc. are NOT scenes and therefore do NOT count. That cuts out Carry On Wayward Son completely, which has only been in the previouslies, the outtake of Jensen dancing to Eye of the Tiger (only the 30 seconds that were actually in the episode count), and the first part of Foreplay/Long Time, which started as a previously and segued into about 45 seconds of the actual episode.
Now that we got the basics over, the contest mechanics are the same. 1 vote per IP address. Polls close at 8:00 pm CST. The scene with the most votes moves on to the next round. Comments are encouraged, especially since this one is likely to produce a lot of strong conversation, just remember that this community is known for being civil and anti-flame war. Let's keep it that way.
Below are links to a contest basics site with the ranking of each song-to-scene that made it into the contest as well as a bracket form if you want to play along or predict at home. There will also be links to videos of the scenes in the contest on that day if I could find one. If you know of a video of a scene I did not find, please let me know so I can include it. I apologize in advance for any of your favorite scenes I could not find.
Finally, I am postponing the 150 episode ranking articles. So sorry to everyone who is ready but this contest will take us right up to the midseason premiere and I do not have time to do them both at the same time. I plan to start it during the in-season spring hiatus if we have one this year. If not, it will be the very first thing we do in summer hiatus. So if you have not already finished your rankings, you have about 1.5 months to do so. No excuses to those of you who have skipped the middle episodes. :-P Also, if you are still reading this, thank you very much. I know it was a lot. Leave a comment below working in your favorite SPN episode and you will be entered into a special contest for a prize. Thanks for reading and as always, happy voting!
Contest Basics
Contest Bracket Break-down
Scene Videos: (Remember this is not favorite scene but which song matches the scene best)
Renegade
Can't Find My Way Home
Ramblin' Man - first minute only until Back in Black replaces it
Man in the Wilderness
All Out of Love
Dream a Little Dream of Me
Silent Lucidity
Fire of Unknown Origin
My blog
SPN Asylum
SpoilerTV
Slightly off topic, but tangentially related, so I'm reaching out here. What was the episode where the angels put Sam/Dean into other lives and they had to catch the ghost at the office building? It starts with A Well Respected Man? I don't think it's in this poll, but it was my favorite song-to-scene so I was gonna go back an watch, but I can't find it--I'm sure I'm just stupid, but any help would be awesome!
ReplyDeleteThe first and last polls were the easiest of the round by far, and will probably be my easiest of the entire contest. Renegade is my favorite song-to-scene without question, and is my go-to when I think of music matching action. It entirely enhances the scene. And Silent Lucidity, though I'm not incredibly familiar with the song, matches its scene perfectly as well. It's chilling, and absolutely haunting, and fits seamlessly into its place.
ReplyDeleteThat's 4.17, It's a Terrible Life. I love A Well Respected Man in that episode as well :)
ReplyDeleteThank you sooooo much!
ReplyDeleteNot a problem! You make me want to go back and watch that right now haha
ReplyDeleteIf you go to the link at the top that says Contest Basics, you will see the complete list of 64 song-to-scene entries in the contest. You will see that A Well-Respected Man came in at #6, so it was nominated quite a few times. If you click on the link that says Contest Bracket Break-Down, you can see what numbers A Well-Respected Man will go up against throughout the contest. For instance, it is in the very bottom right hand corner so it will be in the last batch of round 1 polls. It will go up against Burnin' for You. When it wins (and it should win easily) it will go against Bad Company, which should beat Wake Up Little Susie, for round 2. The match between Well-Respected Man and Bad Company will be a lot harder because both of them are a great song-to-scene match up. Should be interesting to see how that one ends up.
ReplyDeleteI think most people will agree with you today. Renegade and Silent Lucidity are well known song-to-scene choices going up against songs most people don't remember. There will be clear winners for much of the first round. It's round 2 when things will start getting sticky.
ReplyDelete1. Renegade - perfect song to scene compared to Can't Find My Way Home. It fit the situation, with the FBI having caught up to Sam and Dean.
ReplyDelete2. Man Of The Wilderness - Just has to win the round! Listen to the lyrics! Hands down one of the best songs to scene nominee.
3. Dream A Little Dream Of Me - It fit the scene better than All Out Of Love did for it's scene, as another song could have easily be chosen in that singing scene. And DALDOM was played when Dean's dream was revealed. I loved the All Out Of Love scene, but this is song to scene, so my priorities are different.
4. Silent Lucidity - Great for the scene it was played in. Fit better than Fire Of An Unknown Origin for it's scene. (As this is not about if the song reminds us of the history of fire and Winchesters or not)
If Renegade doesn't win this one the world will no longer make sense to me...
ReplyDeleteHa! You and me both. Although it is not near as sure a bet as Carry on Wayward Son winning the Favorite Song contest. Talk about a surefire winner.
ReplyDeleteHaven't really been participating in these polls much but thought I'd give it a try (mostly because I can't remember all the scenes and songs lol). Renegade by Styx wins for the first poll hands down, best song for that scene! Silent Lucidity in Heart was awesome, such a heartbreaking scene and the music fit perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI think Fire of an Unknown Origin makes an interesting choice for the Winchester saga as a whole too. It was such an odd place to put a song that could have made an impact elsewhere. Too bad they used Hell House for the BOC marathon. Glad they put Don't Fear the Reaper in Faith at least.
ReplyDeleteIf you go to the top of the polls you will see a section called Scene Videos. You can find all the scenes nominated in today's polls there.
ReplyDeleteI can't see renegade not wining this. Great song and great scene
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dahne. I'd only clicked on the one that explained the brackets and since I'm a big March Madness girl I thought I'd gotten the basic gist, my bad. Please don't take my failures in paying attention in any way to reflect a lack of appreciation of your time and energy and thoroughness when putting together these polls. I'm just lazy and I feel bad that you've had to explain yourself twice because of it.
ReplyDeleteMe too.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is indeed one of the favorites, but in my opinion there are two more very strong contenders - "Don't fear the Reaper" and "Oh Death". I do hope these will be the top 3, don't particularly care for the exact order though - either case it will be fine by me :)
ReplyDeleteAnd my votes here go to Renegade, Ramblin' Man, Dream a Little Dream of Me and Silent Lucidity.
I think all three will do very well. They were in the top 5 nominated so I would expect them to get at least into the final 8.
ReplyDeleteI can't see it either but then again the best title contest went completely sideways in a hurry so who knows what will happen. As long as it isn't Eye of the Tiger, I'm good. That one has nothing to do with the scene and everything to do with people not being able to follow directions.
ReplyDeleteHA, feel the anger of Dahne :D And in my opinion, you are right
ReplyDelete1. Renegade - this is gonna be my winning pick across the board. for me it
ReplyDelete....is just PERFECT
2. Man in the Wilderness - I actually listened to the lyrics this time. It worked
....for me. (Honorable mention goes to the audio issue in the clip that
....caused the bros' voices to be higher than normal and added a bit of a
....Southern drawl - especially to Jared. :-)
3. Dream A Little Dream of Me - I don't think I can count All Out of Love
....in this contest. That scene is hilarious but the song serves a different
....purpose in the scene so it felt like a mismatch for this contest.
4. Silent Lucidity - another of those scenes whose impact was increased
....by the choice of music.
Dahne...thanks for finding the video links. Incredibly helpful to me on choices 2 & 3. Especially Man in the Wilderness. I'm not familiar with the song and the looking at it standalone really helped me understand why it was nominated and to evaluate it in context.
No worries. I'm explaining thoroughly here because I am sure that others will have the same questions and I'm trying to shortcut answers.
ReplyDeleteThat was the first time I'd ever heard the song and it totally made me get a copy.
ReplyDeleteHa! My favorite is when Jared says, "What names did you write on the application this time?" It's all drawl. It's always a bit jarring for me to go back to season 1 after watching seasons 4 and on because the brothers, especially Dean, have such different voices between season 1 and season 4. It always sounds a bit like chipmunks at first, but then when I watch a season 4 episode it sounds like they are trying to hard to be gruff-voiced. It's less noticeable when I do season marathons, but right now I am jumping from one episode to another and it's really noticeable.
ReplyDeleteSo glad the videos helped. I watched a few and looked up lyrics before voting too. I am saddened that Man in the Wilderness will not be going far in this contest but I'm happy that you found the lyrics to match too. It really is one of the best song-to-scene choices of the latter seasons.
Great,I was really looking forward to this one!
ReplyDelete1)Renegade,which I can easily see winning this whole thing.It's just perfect,especially the way they paused the song for a few seconds before getting to the fast tempo after Dean's line.
2)Man in the Wilderness.Another favorite of mine,basically because the lyrics fit perfectly with Dean's situation(Another year has passed me by...)
3)Neither...I don't know.Dream a Little Dream of Me,I guess.I'm not a huge fan of the scene or the song but it actually fits.But I'm guessing that this will be the last we see of it in this contest.
4)Silent Lucidity.I like the song,I don't particularly like the scene,but it's one of these cases where the music alone made the scene so much more dramatic.So for the song-to-scene competition it is actually a strong contender.Wouldn't have much luck with me in a different competition.
hee hee... Jensen's voice is definitely higher, but this was definitely the audio on the recording. It's a little warped. :-D
ReplyDeleteI honestly never consciously included the lyrics in my decision before. :-)
Oh. Urgh! That was one of them I had a hard time finding so I don't have a backup. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteHa! Yeah I was worried that there would be several good song-to-scene choices that would be toppled because people think Dean singing Air Supply is funny. However, it goes up against Silent Lucidity next round and if there is any hope for this contest to stay true to its purpose, Silent Lucidity will win it.
ReplyDeleteForgive me. I just spent 3 days with 27 relatives, 6 of them under the age of 7, in one house for an extended third Christmas. My patience is a bit thin. Fair warning though, I will be ranting against Eye of the Tiger almost every single time it comes up. I still have no idea how it got into this contest to begin with, much less so highly ranked.
ReplyDeleteno worries. For the purpose it was just fine. I just started laughing when Sam started sounding like a Southerner.
ReplyDeleteI understand You, had a madhouse myself. And regarding the Eye of the Tiger, well it is a very hilarious outtake, and that is why it gets all the votes, even though it is not the contest for the best outtakes :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Dahne, for running this great contest, I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun fpr all of us and I know it takes a lot of effort to run it, so thank you again.
ReplyDeleteAbout All Out Of Love, I get your argumentation, and I understand what you want the contest to be about, but for me that song-scene combination is just perfect. I don't care so much that there might be other hundred songs that would also fit perfectly, the one they chose and the way the scene plays match so perfectly that I just can't vote against it.
I also voted for Renegade and Man in the Wilderness, and hate that these three are going to go against each other soon. Silent Lucidity is also a very strong contestant, but I just voted for the 1.17 scene, because I have a soft spot for that scene, again, even if they could have chosen another song this one just fits very well, but I admit the lyrics are kind of too harsh for accompanying a prank on Sam. In this case my vote is more like a pity vote for the loser.
I think the All out of love is great for that scene, not just because Dean is singing it, but because the car is gone and he is lost without her.
ReplyDeleteHe is from Texas after all. lol
ReplyDeleteRenegade only has one song that may give it a run and that is O Death..
ReplyDeleteMan in the Wilderness, Wow Styx again.
All Out of Love, perfect song for the scene, Dean has lost his car and is so lost without her.
Silent Lucidity
Renegade beyond any doubt should win this. It fit the scene perfectly, as if it were written for it.
ReplyDeleteMan in the Wilderness is another song that fits the scene. Sometimes they just get it right.
The third one was difficult but All Out of Love when Dean had to leave his baby behind was awesome.
Silent Lucidity was my choice. Sam facing killing Madison was poignant. Dean offering to do it. Sam crying and Dean having the tears also was heartbreaking. Silent Lucidity made the mood even more poignant.
Yeah. I was not expecting either of the final two of best title to make it that far. Guess we'll see how this one goes. O' death is brilliant too (I'm sure that's in the comp yeah?)
ReplyDeleteAnd on eye of the tiger. It is a hilarious outtake but I agree with you about song to scene relatedness. However, despite your ranting, people will still vote or what they want to or what they know and that scene (outtake) is just far more memorable than most other options which is probably why it ranked so high.
1. Renegade. One of my favorite song-to-scene. When watched for the first time (and don't understand most of words in song) and heard that song she felt be so perfect for that scene.
ReplyDelete2. Man in the Wilderness. Lyrics fits perfectly with Dean's situation.
3. Dream a Little Dream of Me, because fits better than All Out of Love.
4. Neither. Silent Lucidity (i'm remembering scene, but not song, watched again and after few minutes forgotten), because looks like fits scene better.
-------
By the way it is normal that song who was never used in Supernatural when i'm lisining always reminds me of Dean and Impala?
If we were doing favorite scene, then All Out of Love would definitely get my vote over Dream a Little Dream of Me. However, the reason I decided to do the song-to-scene now, besides it fit well with favorite song, is because we have been doing these polls for a few years now and I got requests to do something a little different. We seem to keep voting about the same type of things and the same episodes/scenes keep winning. It is getting a little boring for people who have been here the whole time. There are only so many ways you can say The End and Lazarus Rising are awesome, especially since we will be back talking about individual episodes at the next hiatus.
ReplyDeleteThis contest is designed to break that. We have done our favorites forever. This allows us to be more critical, to look at episodes in a little more depth, and for the conversation to go in a different direction than just more of "I like this scene" which we have done to death.If we can keep some of those scenes that rarely get talked about in the contest for longer, we have rejuvenated conversation and hopefully more people will participate in that conversation. If we end up with the same old same old again, it is going to get very boring very quickly.
Most people who vote don't read the directions, read the comments, or comment themselves so I expect that Eye of the Tiger will go very, very far no matter how many times I repeat myself. I am resigned to that fact but still committed in keeping this from being just another "my favorite" contest because in all honesty people who have been participating on this site for years already know how each other will vote and what they will say about each episode.
ReplyDeleteI never see All Out of Love as being about the Impala. My theory is that Dean lost his virginity to that song and it holds a special place for him because of that. However, taking it from your interpretation, any love song about missing someone would be appropriately cheesy enough to proclaim his love for Baby and still make people laugh.
ReplyDeleteI often find myself listening to songs and thinking of how they would fit in Supernatural. I don't think that is weird at all. It simply means music is a huge part of the show to me. So what song is striking you as SPN-ish these days?
ReplyDeleteCan you tell me what time a poll closes in the evening? Yesterday I was gone all day and when I came to vote in the best title poll it had already closed. Or you would have had a tie on that one.
ReplyDeletePolls always close at 8:00 pm Central Standard Time. I was actually campaigning on Twitter for one more vote so we could have a tie but they got there too late also. Would have been interesting.
ReplyDeleteYou calmed me because I have already started to think that my love for supernatural almost crossed the line when is not normal any more and i need take break from Supernatural :D.
ReplyDeleteThe song which is about a guy who is in love with his car....:D Queen - I'm In Love With My Car ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdDNFJpil50 ).
Thanks Dahne! You're always willing to help a fellow Supernatural junkie with withdrawal symptoms during hellaitus =P
ReplyDeleteBwah! This is awesome. Definitely needs to be on the Soon to be Played on Supernatural list. Who could hear this and not think of SPN? Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about surviving together. :-)
ReplyDeleteA great upside to being involved in the fandom in some way. We can help each other. lol
ReplyDeleteI thought it was just Jensen that's from Texas. Kewl.
ReplyDeleteThey are both from Texas. Jared is from San Antonio and Jensen is from Richardson, which is basically Dallas. It's the suburb that borders Dallas.
ReplyDeleteYep, both from my state and that makes me happy. lol
ReplyDeleteFirst time EVER that I voted for Air Supply. Or Little River Band. Or Captain and Tennille.
ReplyDeleteCan't find my way home is a great song but better suited to a Sam/Dean end of episode split.
ReplyDeleteSilent Lucidity is one of the songs I would play before a big game. Always gave me that extra gear without turning me into a raging maniac.
ReplyDeleteGotta disagree. Miami Vice was the best use of music in the storytelling.
ReplyDeleteHa! My family and I watched Miami Vice every week together. I do agree that it had some inspired music choices at times, especially if you were into 80's electronica. However, I still maintain that Cold Case is by far the best TV show ever at using music. The music was its own character in the show and is still the reason why I cannot order the freaking show on DVD or Blu-Ray. That's how seriously they took their music choices.
ReplyDeleteI'm sad "Fire of Unknown Origin" didn't win because Blue Oyster Cult is the key to the solution of the mystery of Hell House, and those lyics of "A fire of unknown origin took my baby away" is the quintessential SPN theme, with Mary & Jessica burning on the ceiling. Though I know Silent Lucidity is very moving in that moment, and I agree it's a great song match.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that it was not used well at all. Mary and Jessica dying are the catalyst for the drama of Supernatural. I agree the song lyrics tie to that. However, they used it in a scene where Dean starts the prank wars, the comedy of the episode. This was one of the worst placements of a song in a scene in Supernatural history in my opinion. They could have used this song perfectly in many places in season 1 but instead they wasted it by making it part of a BOC theme night.
ReplyDeleteI will absolutely agree that objectively it should come down to Oh Death and Renegade.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy too. I was born in El Paso. :-D
ReplyDeleteOh my..that is perfect song for Dean and Baby.
ReplyDeleteI was born in Houston, but live just outside of Cut & Shoot, TX now..that is about 40 miles north of Houston. I try and never go to Houston, but LOVE San Antonio.
ReplyDeleteI've never watched Cold Case but will have to start now. Gotta be on somewhere. The West Wing had one or two brilliant spots but overall wasn't known for the tunes!
ReplyDeleteThe only place I know it airs in St. Louis is on TNT at 2 in the morning. I wish it would be picked up elsewhere but the music rights are too expensive. Or at least that is why they won't release the show on DVD.
ReplyDeleteWith my current sleep schedule 2AM shouldn't be a problem!
ReplyDelete